"Criminals"

This two-track EP uses a recording of a speech by ex-US President Obama as its main hook, and comes with an original mix by the Italian duo the Tribälism Bøys and a remix by label boss CLiVe.

The Original Mix is a beat-laden house track that starts with a percussive intro with what sound like zoo samples in the background, then builds with female vocal samples and synth stabs until the Obama speech kicks in along with a muted funky bassline. It gets a nice groove going and chugs along merrily with the speech well timed and embedded in the mix. The CLiVe Remix has a deep tech-house feel and starts with a full minute of synth-and-percussion intro, then progresses into a chunky track with swung hi-hats, an off-time bassline and an ethereal synth line. The Obama speech stands out more on this mix and has added echo, and the track seems to have more energy than the original, but both are good nonetheless.

Luckily this release hasn’t turned out in any way gimmicky or trite, which can often be the case with tracks with a political commentary. Both mixes are eminently playable at different times of a night, with the CLiVe remix being the one for peaktime action. It's also my favourite of the two, though I do think that minute-long intro is a tad excessive.